Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp., the subject of probes
into voice-mail hacking and bribery at its U.K. newspapers, was
asked by U.S. government investigators for documents relating to
its highly profitable Wilton, Connecticut-based marketing unit,
according to a person familiar with the matter.

The request follows three U.K. police probes, an inquiry by
Parliament and an investigation by U.S. prosecutors of whether
employees of the company’s U.K. newspaper unit hacked into voice
mails of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

U.S. investigators are also examining whether employees of
the News of the World tabloid, closed by News Corp. after
admissions of hacking, paid bribes to U.K. officials in
violation of a federal anticorruption law, said a person
familiar with a letter sent by investigators to the company.

In the latest development, U.S. investigators last month
asked a lawyer at Williams & Connolly LLP for documents used
during a 2009 antitrust trial involving News America Marketing
Group and rival Floorgraphics Inc., according to the person
familiar with the request, who asked not to be identified
because it was confidential. The firm represents News Corp.

‘Anticompetitive Schemes’

Prosecutors this month also asked to interview lawyers
representing Robert Emmel, a former News America Marketing
employee who alleged in court papers that the division violated
racketeering laws and engaged in “predatory and anticompetitive
schemes.”

Investigations of News Corp.’s illegal conduct initially
involved just News of the World, which represented only
1 percent of annual revenue for the New York-based media
company, publisher the Wall Street Journal and operator of the
Fox television networks. The marketing unit, which promotes
products through supermarket coupons, accounted for four times
that revenue and about 12 percent of profit for fiscal 2011.

Rivals of News America Marketing have claimed in court
papers that it prospered by violating antitrust laws. It also
hacked into a Floorgraphics password-protected website, one of
its own lawyers told the jury at the 2009 trial.

“There is a pattern of anticompetitive behavior by News
Corp.,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog
group. “We’ve seen it in Britain, and we’ve seen it in
America.”

News Corp. spokeswoman Suzanne Halpin declined to comment
on the latest U.S. request.

News Corp., after falling as much as 1.9 percent on news of
the probe, closed up 23 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $16.34 in
Nasdaq Stock Market trading.